Soccer In Toronto 08.09.09

By Rocket Robin Soccer In Toronto

CSL Result
Sunday August 9th, 2009

Final Score
Toronto Croatia vs St Catharines Wolves
Postponed due to thunderstorm

Venue
Centennial Stadium, Etobicoke

Kickoff
8:15 pm

Notes
The players were introduced and the national anthem played but referee John Oliva called the teams aside and sent them back to the locker room. I estimated if the game had been played at about the 5 minute mark, the downpour started with sheets of rain blowing in from the north and the thunder and lightning which could be heard in the distance before game time moved overhead. The delay was to be 30 minutes but the rain was actually worse by 8:45 pm.

I’m sure the league really wanted to play this game because they’ve passed the halfway mark of the season and games are hard to reschedule. The Wolves would have had a two hour drive to get here.

Centennial Stadium has been refurbished with field turf this year but also aluminum benches replacing the rotted wooden ones. Better safe than sorry. Many of the approximately 125 fans who were willing to dare that there wouldn’t be a storm retreated home before the half hour was over.

Ivan Zgela who was badly injured in last week’s game against TFC Academy had an ankle cast and a pair of crutches was taking cover under the stands and answered through a translator that he had a broken tibia and would be out six weeks.

The drive home was interesting as street lights and traffic lights were out in the area surrounding the stadium and part of the neighbourhood was in a blackout including the Tim Horton’s. A tree branch on a street near mine had fallen blocking the roadway. This was from this recent storm and not the storm we had just before lunchtime. I don’t remember Toronto ever having two thunderstorms in the same day.